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Never forget what you are

Tyrion: "You, you're Ned Stark's bastard, aren't you?" And when Jon Snow begins to walk away, "Did I offend you? Sorry! You are the bastard though.
Jon Snow: "Ned Stark is my father."
Tyrion: "And Lady Stark is not your mother, making you the bastard. Let me give you some advice, bastard. Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armour, and it can never be used against you."
Jon Snow: "What the hell do you know about being a bastard?"
Tyrion: "All dwarves are bastards in their fathers' eyes."

This is the exchange of words between Jon Snow and Tyrion Lannister in the very first episode of the first season of Game of Thrones. The line that was the most interesting to me was - Never forget what you are. The rest of the world will not. Wear it like armour, and it can never be used against you.

We spend most of our hours in the day pretending to the rest of the world that we are better than what we are, doing our best to not let them find out what we really are, putting up a pretense. We portray ourselves as already being what we would like us to be.

And this would be like Jon Snow pretending that he isn't a bastard or Tyrion pretending that he isn't a dwarf.

Instead, if we started to wear what we are like armour, showing the world exactly what we are, then we will spend all our time and thoughts working on improving what we are rather than on worrying about what others think of us and what we are doing. If we accept what we are and are happy to tell the world about it, it can never be used against us.

One step before telling the world is telling ourselves. We have an ideal version of ourselves that we want to believe in, while the reality is usually far from that ideal. And we start by telling ourselves that the reality is where we are and moving from there.